Dime is the premier basketball magazine, covering the NBA, NCAA, High School, Playground and International basketball - as well as sneakers, fashion and music.
Issue link: http://dimemagazine.epubxp.com/i/130678
Game and never averaged 20 points. How'd this all happen? We let him explain. The Dime: How did you and K1X come together to come up with an idea for this collection? MB: Well K1X approached me, and told me the things that they stood for and what they were trying to do. It kinda made sense in terms of the things they were going after, what their company stands for. I was interested in it. Charles Oakley was involved and Ron Artest did some stuff with them so I felt like they were a vital company, a very solid company. This gives me an opportunity to get myself back out there. π ππππ πππ π ππ π IN TERVI EW. SEA N SW EENEY IMAGE S . K 1X π ππππ πππ π ππ π Sure, TYRONE "MUGGSY" BOGUES gained fame and popularity because at 5-3, he was the smallest player to ever suit up in the NBA. But even today, he casts a large shadow as one of the most memorable players of the 1990s because he played a frenetic style that became a trademark of one of the most underrated teams of that era. G ET NBA LEGENDS LIKE Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Webber and Reggie Miller (and Kenny Smith, Steve Kerr and Steve Smith, too) in a room to talk basketball, and the chatter might range from the best ballhandler they ever saw to the cat who talked the most trash. Barbershop talk is the point of NBA TV's new show, "Open Court." But in one episode, when discussing the most annoying defender they ever played against, there was no debate. It was Muggsy Bogues. "I thought there were two Muggsys on the court because I'd dribble one way and then come back and he'd be there again," Kenny Smith said. Kerr admitted that if he saw Bogues guarding him, he'd just give the ball up. Once Bogues locked onto you, he got into your space and you were toast. Even Chris Webber recalled his guards telling him, "Hey, I have Muggsy tonight," indirectly asking C-Webb to stay at the opposing foul line and set screens on Bogues just so they could dribble past midcourt. During a 14-year career that spanned time in Washington, Charlotte, Golden State and Toronto, Bogues averaged 7.7 points, 7.6 assists and 1.5 steals a night. Muggsy made the playoffs fve times, quarterbacking four of those teams as the starting point guard and defying the longtime rule you couldn't win with a 5-3 lead guard. Nowadays, Bogues is the head coach at United Faith Christian Academy in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he found he enjoys teaching and molding teenagers. Yet even after playing his fnal game in the NBA in 2001, Bogues is still relevant enough that international clothing brand K1X gave Muggsy his own clothing line in late 2012. Muggsy was a trendsetter. He was an innovator. He is one of the most beloved NBA players who never made an All-Star 43 Dime: Did it catch you by surprise when they reached out? MB: It wasn't really a surprise. In terms of the status of where you are at the end of your career… I guess that was a little bit of a surprise, but it's nothing I still have my abilities and still have the audience out there to try to continue to inspire. It wasn't a total shock but it was a surprise that it came to me that way. Dime: You've coached in the WNBA. You are coaching high school now. Do you want to coach in the NBA? Do you have any goals for your coaching career? MB: Well I'm a teacher. I wouldn't mind coaching in the NBA. That would be a nice little job to have, working with the players, working with the guys. But I'm not going to chase that dream. That's not a dream of mine. I'm not gonna chase it. It would be great to be able to work like that and if it's a convenience to where you are living. But I just love the game. I just love teaching. I was coaching in the WNBA and I was hoping I could springboard to something else, but I was just enjoying that at the moment. And I wasn't looking to coach high school basketball. A situation created itself with the kid that I was looking after, and they got rid of his coach and I didn't want him to transfer his last year so I stepped over last year to take over the program. A couple of kids got under my skin, which is always the case, and that's why I decided to come back again and start teaching, and give something back like my high school coach was able to give me. This is where God wants me to be, and I'm not gonna challenge him on that. Dime: People always say point guards are like coaches on the floor. Did your experience as a lead guard make you a better coach? Does that hold any weight? MB: It holds a lot of weight, and I'm not saying big men don't turn out to be great